


Gabriel's Fiction Games

by PlatonicRabbit



Series: Gabriel's Fiction Games [1]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Supernatural
Genre: Attempted Matchmaking, Crack, Gabriel Being Gabriel, Gen, Hogwarts, M/M, Trickster Gabriel, but not really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 02:23:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3511718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlatonicRabbit/pseuds/PlatonicRabbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every so often Gabriel gets bored and Sam wakes up in a different fictional universe. Some are a lot more fun than others. This time, Sam's woken up as an eleven year old with a very important letter waiting for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: The game

**If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**

Sam wakes up feeling… small. It’s an odd sensation. He looks down at himself to see flannel dinosaur pyjamas covering a body that most certainly is not his present day one. _Not this crap again ___, Sam thinks.

‘Gabriel,’ he says to the empty room, knowing the dick can hear him.

‘Gabe, come fix this please,’

The room remains empty. It looks like the archdick wants Sam to let this one play out a while longer.  
Fine. Sam can play that game too. He’s interrupted from his silent cursing of the angel by Dean barging into his room.  
At least he thinks that’s Dean. It looks like Dean. The Dean of twenty years or so ago, that is.  
Gabriel never brings Dean along on their trips to fiction land. Sam hopes this doesn’t mean something else is going on, or that Gabriel is planning an extended stay for them in whatever universe this is. Speaking of which, Sam should probably get on to figuring that out. Having some sort of inkling of the objective usually makes Gabriel’s games a lot easier to play.  
Sam wonders where Gabriel could possibly have stuck them that required a fifteen year old Dean and a… he’s going to guess eleven year old him.  
But now Dean, who hasn't stopped bouncing on the spot and chattering away, is holding something out to Sam. An envelope of some kind of thick, expensive paper, and with a seal on it in a shape Sam is very familiar with after the last movie marathon Charlie subjected them too.  
Oh hell no.  
The letter confirms Sam’s suspicions, once he’s torn it open and scanned the contents.  
It looks like the Winchesters are going to Hogwarts.

 **If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**


	2. All Aboard

**If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**

As soon as Sam is finished reading the letter (not that he hadn't more or less known what it said anyway, Sam had gone out of his way to have as much of a childhood as possible at one point) he blinks and is standing in what has to be Diagon Alley. Apparently Gabriel doesn’t want to waste time on the “boring” parts of the book.  
Sam can’t really find it in him to be annoyed at the moment, though, because this is freaking amazing. It’s not the Diagon Alley of the movies, it’s the one Sam had pictured the first time he read the books, fleshed out with details from (knowing Gabriel) J.K Rowling’s own head, most likely.

Even for Gabriel, this is impressive. Much better than that disastrous trip into the Hunger Games books that Sam still couldn't believe Gabriel had actually thought was a good idea. That “holiday” had ended early after Sam was shot through the leg by a crossbow.  
A thought suddenly occurring to Sam, he glances down, finding, to his relief, the dinosaur pyjamas had been replaced by jeans and a cotton t-shirt. Damn. One more thing he couldn't be annoyed at Gabriel for.

Sighing, Sam gives in to Dean’s insistent hand pulling and allows himself to be dragged through the alley.

 

Every single shop in this place is freaking amazing. Sam had had to be physically dragged out of three stores so far, the only exceptions being the clothier’s, which had basically just been a regular clothing store with a lot less colour and a much more fussy store attendant, and Gringotts, which, while impressive, had made Sam feel vaguely nervous.  
It had been a welcome surprise, however, to find that Gabriel had made the Winchesters of this dimension extremely wealthy; they weren't quite Malfoy grade rich, but Gabriel clearly didn’t want Sam to miss out on any of the experience.

Speaking of Gabriel, Sam was sure that was him sitting with a dark haired teen at Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour up ahead. It was a bit hard to tell given Sam had never seen the Archangel’s vessel as a preteen before, but those eyes were pretty damn distinctive. Plus, if they were going to find Gabriel anywhere in Diagon Alley, the ice creamery made sense.

‘Hey, there’s Cas!’ Dean piped up.

Wait. The teenager sitting with almost-certainly-Gabriel was _Castiel? ___  
Just how much detail had Gabriel put into this world?  
And how did Dean recognise the back of teenaged Jimmy Novak’s head?  
They moved towards the pair of angels calmly eating ice cream among the crowds of wizards.

‘Hello Dean. Sam,’ Castiel said.

Some things never change, no matter what dimension they were in, apparently. Briefly Sam wonders why Gabriel made himself so much younger than Castiel, then realises it was so he could put their brothers in the same year.

‘Are those two the real Dean and Cas, or did you make illusions of them, too?’ Sam asks the Archangel.

He hasn't been able to figure it out so far. On the one hand, Gabriel is rarely able to fake Dean convincingly, seemingly finding the urge to simply caricature him too tempting. On the other hand, Sam can’t imagine the real Dean being so on board with this situation. Maybe Gabriel mojoed him into finding his calm.  
Gabriel takes another lick of ice cream before answering (is that maple syrup flavoured? Weird-ass angel).

‘All real, Sammy-boy. Figured those two deserved some fun too. ‘Sides, pretending to be Dean gets irritating after a while. Easier to let him play his own role.’

‘Why are we here, Gabriel?’ Dean finally tears his eyes away from the truly ridiculous (magical) variety of ice cream in the parlour.

Oh, right. Dean’s never been on one of Gabriel’s fantasy world holidays before. Well, this was probably a nicer one to start in than Sam’s first experience with the Trickster’s idea of a vacation…  
Gabriel just shrugs in response to Dean’s question, golden eyes dancing in amusement. He pulls out a short, pale wand and makes it shoot yellow sparks lazily.

‘I felt like having a bit of fun with you boys. What kid doesn’t dream of going to Hogwarts these days, anyhow?’

‘Dad didn’t let Sam and I read fantasy novels like this,’ Dean says, kind of snottily, really.

Gabriel is visibly horrified.

‘He thought it would confuse us to have too many incorrect variations of how to kill stuff floating around in our heads at a young age,’ Sam explains.

He didn’t add that he’d secretly gone and read just about every book John Winchester had had banned; Harry Potter, Dracula, Tolkien, Lovecraft, a host of others. Dean still didn’t know Sam had worked his way through most of John’s “books that hunters aren't allowed” list by age twelve.  
Gabriel looks pensive at the explanation. Nowadays even Sam has to admit the rule makes a certain amount of sense, but as a child he’d seen it as a horrible torture designed specifically for Sam by his dad. Dean had loved the excuse not to have to read. Shaking himself out of his recollections, Sam pulls out some of his new Sickles and hands them to Dean.

‘Your choice,’ he tells his brother.

Dean, despite being a man in his mid-thirties in the body of a teenager, jumps at the opportunity for unique ice-cream flavours like a five year old; which Sam thought was an uncharacteristically enthusiastic reaction until he saw the cherry pie flavoured bucket. At least someone was getting enthusiastic about Gabriel’s excursion. As he watches his brother press his face right up against the glass display Sam feels Gabriel’s hand come to rest on his knee.

_Currently in an eleven year old body._ He reminds the angel.

The hand retreats and Sam can almost hear Gabriel pouting beside him. Sam sighs and reaches out to interlace his fingers with Gabriel’s. After all, his angel is also currently wearing a preteen, so as long as they keep the interaction child-friendly it should be alright. Not that there’s a manual for this sort of thing.

Sam lasts about a minute before his curiosity gets the better of him. He's barely opened his mouth, though, before Gabriel is pulling out his wand again.

'Pine and Phoenix Feather. Good for illusions, memory spells and protecting the mind,' Gabriel says, proudly.

Sam has to admit, it sounds like a good fit for the Archangel. He pulls his own out, wanting to show it off despite the likelihood that Gabriel knows exactly what it is already.

'Yew with Phoenix Feather, good for Transfiguration,' Sam states.

Gabriel almost chokes attempting to hold in a giggle.

'You got _Voldemort's_ wand?'

Sam scowls at him.

 

Dean grabs Sam’s trunk and throws it onto a rack in the compartment he’s claimed before sprawling across one of the seats. He instructs Sam to do the same with the other seat, saying they don’t want others getting in here and taking up space before Dean’s fifth year friends arrive (Sam suspects Dean is letting himself get a little too caught up in the fake reality).  
Dean is still remarkably relaxed about this entire situation. Sam thinks he would rather sit with some other first years and make friends his own age, before remembering that he’s not eleven and any friends he makes will be part of the illusion that he’ll have to say goodbye to eventually.  
Sam already knows he’ll miss this world when Gabriel tires of it.

Just then, the angels waltz into their compartment.  
Castiel is in the lead, as Gabriel is weighed down by wizard candy of every sort mentioned in the books- Every Flavour Beans, Sam supposes, make sense given the Trickster’s sense of humour; though Sam isn't going within a foot of these. Somehow, Sam suspects, everything he ate would end up being booger or dirt flavoured, while Gabriel’s Beans would exclusively taste of the things candy should taste like.  
There’s also a collection of chocolate frogs trying their best to escape their imminent fate, a mountain of Cauldron Cakes and an entire family of sugar mice. Sam wonders if the magic candy was the whole reason they were here. He certainly wouldn't put it past Gabriel.

Castiel, who is already wearing Ravenclaw blue robes and a shiny Prefect badge (what exactly is the point of that, Gabriel?), is leaving the carriage, apparently having decided to dump Gabriel with Sam and Dean. If only they were all so lucky.

‘Cas isn't staying?’ Sam asked.

‘Nah, he has to go to the Prefect meeting. He’ll be back later. Now, I’m gonna go put my robes on before the line for the compartment gets too long. You two hold the carriage for us, and you can go when I get back.’

With that, Dean is gone. Finally having a chance to speak privately, Sam turns to Gabriel and glares. The archangel disguised as a child (though maybe this way he looks his mental age anyway) grins back insolently, a twitching sugar mouse tail hanging out of the side of his mouth.

‘Did you know the collective noun for mice is “mischief,” Sammy? A mischief of mice. I like it.’

‘Don’t call me Sammy,’ Sam shoots back automatically. ‘And what are we doing here, Gabe? Couldn't you have asked before turning me into a kid and dumping me back in TV land?’

This is far from the first time Gabriel has done exactly that, but Sam worries that if he lets on it doesn’t annoy him that much anymore it’ll start happening every week. Thank God for Gabriel’s ability to create time loops and drop him back the same night they started each time.

‘TV land? Nope, book land, Samaroon! Movie land maybe.’

‘That’s not the point, Gabriel.’

Gabriel rolls his eyes and stands up. ‘Fine. If you’re so bored, I’d better move this along a little.’

He snaps his fingers before Sam can ask what he’s planning now, and suddenly they’re not on the train anymore.  
This must be the Great Hall. Sam’s jaw literally drops. If he wasn't so annoyed at Gabriel Sam would be seriously appreciating the work his archangel boyfriend had obviously put into this “adventure”. It was incredible.

There was no light in the room other than the thousands of candles at eye level on the long tables and the starlight from above. Sam could see rain falling from the ceiling that never reached the ground, and silvery clouds floating across the magic roof.  
Right. Annoyed at Gabriel. Not impressed. Not at all impressed.  
Okay, so he’s a little impressed.  
The childish laugh right behind Sam’s ear lets him know Gabriel is eavesdropping on his thoughts. A hand slips into the pocket of the robes he’s apparently wearing now and leaves something moving in there.  
It’s probably a sugar mouse.  
Sam hopes it’s a sugar mouse.

‘It’s a sugar mouse,’ Gabriel whispers, and Sam’s mouth twitches against his will.

His hand curls around the mouse in his pocket. He couldn't help it if he thought the tiny, tasty pink rodents were adorable.

‘Pay attention, Sammy, I worked hard on this part.’

Sam rolls his eyes. Idiot archangels with their obsessions with fictional realities.

Just then, Maggie Smith walks into the room holding a three legged stool and a filthy looking hat. Not Maggie Smith, Minerva McGonagall, Sam corrects himself, watching her. Maybe Gabriel’s Hogwarts has more in common with the movie version than he admits.  
Oh God, Gabriel hadn't written his own Sorting Hat song, had he? 

_Please don't let that be what he did ___, Sam prayed to no one in particular, realising too late the prayer would probably go straight to Gabriel by default.

The Trickster had apparently done exactly as Sam feared; and it was cringe worthy. It sounded suspiciously like a limerick. Sam was glad when it was over. Gabriel apparently heard his thoughts on the angel’s lyrical abilities and poked Sam, hard, in the ribs.

Then the sorting began.  
None of the names called were people Sam knew. Apparently this pocket dimension was populated almost entirely by Gabriel’s illusory people. Better than the alternative, Sam supposed. Gabriel wouldn't have had many options other than taking people Sam knew who had died, or people who hated him, or people the Winchesters had saved who had gone back to their regular, monster free lives, which would not have put Sam in any kind of good mood.

The sorting was going on and on and still neither Sam nor Gabriel had been called. It made sense on Sam’s part given the alphabetical list, but Gabriel generally used either “Angelus” or “Laufeyson” when he had to pick a surname and both of those had passed by.

‘I wanted you to be sorted first so we could be in the same house,’ Gabriel spoke right into Sam’s ear, his arms snaking around the human from behind.

He just could not stay out of Sam’s head today.

‘Only because you won’t talk back to me.’

Sam rolled his eyes and projected exasperation at Gabriel. He felt the angel’s smile without having to turn around and look.

‘Winchester, Samuel,’ Maggie Smith finally called out.

Sam disentangled himself from Gabriel’s arms and walked up the steps, cursing at how large they were. He’d forgotten what it was like to be child sized.

The hat smells like Gabriel’s hair. That’s… weird. It’s also large enough to flop completely over child Sam’s head. Sam realises he doesn’t look any more ridiculous than anyone sorted before him, and that the only people who can see this are Gabriel, Dean, Castiel and a couple hundred illusions, but he scowls into the dark fabric anyway.  
It doesn’t at all surprise Sam when the hat speaks in adult Gabriel’s voice.

**What an interesting brain you have, Samoose.**

_Seriously, Gabe?_

**I am not your handsome and irresistible Gabriel, young Sampster. I am the great and wise Sorting Hat.**

_That wasn't in character._

**… Shut up and pick a house.**

_Fine. Ravenclaw. I thought you were meant to pick._

**Not really, but I’m meant to help. We can discuss meta theories later, Sammich. For now…**

_**‘RAVENCLAW!’** _

Sam is almost sure Gabriel tried to deafen him on purpose. He shoots the child-version of his angel a half-hearted glare as he passes, following the sound of applause to the Ravenclaw table.  
Castiel greets Sam as soon as he sits down.

‘Hello, Sam,’ the teenaged seraph says.

‘Why didn’t he put you and Dean together?’ Sam asks, as soon as the illusions around him stop clapping him on the back and shaking his hand.

Castiel merely shrugs, and says, not at all illuminatingly, 'Gabriel moves in mysterious ways.'

The conversation is interrupted by Gabriel’s arrival at the Ravenclaw table, flopping himself down between his temporarily elder brother and boyfriend.

‘Shouldn’t you be over at the Slytherin table?’

‘What part of “I’m waiting to be sorted until after you so we can be together” didn’t you get?’ Besides, it’s not like there’s a great deal of psychological depth to these houses. Most people probably fit into three of them, at least. Especially since intelligence and personality are entirely different things.’

Sam rolls his eyes and turns away from Gabriel, almost putting his elbow in a plate of gravy coated roast beef that appears as the sorting ends. Apparently they're skipping the Headmaster's welcoming speech.

‘You’re totally a Slytherin,’ he mutters under his breath.

So what if this was fake? Gabriel’s mojoed food was tasty.

**If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yew wood is associated with love, psychic visions, ancestry, blood, suffering, uncontrolled power and a strong connection to dark forces. I used an online quiz to come up with the wands and Sam's made me giggle. Poor Sammy.
> 
> Also, wow, wasn't expecting such an enthusiastic response. Thanks, guys :D 
> 
> The Hogwarts dimension will probably go for another couple of chapters, and if there's still interest I'll do sequels in other 'verses. So let me know if there's any particular story you want Gabriel to drop Sam into and I'll try to make it happen.


	3. Welcome to Wizard School

**If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**

Dean was in a bad mood when they saw him at breakfast the next morning. Apparently he didn’t appreciate being stuck alone in the Gryffindor Tower.  
Sam supposed it would be a little boring.

His night in the Ravenclaw dorms had been awesome. Gabriel had ended up needing to be talked out of turning them both back into adults for a few hours, but other than that the archangel had, for the most part, behaved himself. The four poster bed was one of the most comfortable Sam had ever slept in, and the magic books in the common room were fascinating. Even if none of the information they contained applied to real life magic.

Castiel seemed a little down. He stared forlornly at the pancakes sitting in front of him untouched. Gabriel was as cheerful as ever, putting away plate after plate until Sam was sure he had eaten more than the volume of his vessel’s stomach.  
Stupid angel mojo.

Gabriel was ignoring his brother’s obvious discomfort, so Sam decided to cheer Castiel up himself.

‘What’s up, Cas?’

The angel blinked, breaking off his staring contest with the stack of pancakes to look at Sam instead.

‘I have a “zit”, Sam. Dean found it amusing.’

Sam can’t decide whether to call Dean a dick or laugh at Castiel himself, just because he's announcing he has a pimple the same way a normal person would say they had six months to live. An angel with an acne problem. Seriously.  
But Cas seemed genuinely upset, so Sam swallowed his mirth and gave his now much taller friend a pat on the shoulder.

‘Did you tell Dean he hurt your feelings?’

Castiel blinked, owlishly.

‘No.’

‘Well, maybe you should.’

Castiel nodded sagely at the advice. He stood, nodded once to Sam, almost bowed to Gabriel and moved towards the Gryffindor table, where Dean was attacking a plate of pancakes with his silverware rather than eating them. As soon as Castiel was out of earshot (or what Sam estimated to be angelic earshot) Sam turned to Gabriel.

‘Alright, spill. Why are you keeping Cas and Dean apart?’

Gabriel feigned innocence. Sam crossed his arms and glared until Gabriel broke eye contact to point at the ceiling and shout excitedly about the owls. Sam sighed. Obviously the archangel wasn’t ready to give up his game.  
Sam glanced up at the feathery show above him and was rewarded with owl droppings in his eye. This was going to be a long day if Gabriel kept up the petulant act.

 

The first lesson of the school year was flying.

Maybe it’s just as well Dean’s in another year, Sam mused as the group of illusory children trekked out to an impressive looking Quidditch pitch. This much, at least, looked exactly like the movie adaptation, from the tall towers draped in house colours to the dodgy looking broomsticks lying on the ground. Gabriel was almost skipping beside Sam. He was clearly looking forward to this part of their holiday, which Sam supposed made sense. It wasn’t the first time Gabriel had tried to take Sam flying, though he’d always refused before. Even knowing the archangel could hold Sam in the air with one pinkie toe, or even just his willpower, didn’t override his body’s natural instincts that screamed _unsafe_ whenever they were more than a foot or so from the ground.

Sam listened to Madam Hooch’s instructions about holding his hand out and commanding the broom to come to him sceptically. This whole exercise seemed terribly dubious and the school brooms were just as unbalanced-looking as they were described in the books, with splinters and wayward twigs all over. Nevertheless, the cleaning implement jumped into Sam’s outstretched hand when he called to it, and he ran his fingers along the thin wood. This looked and felt like it was going to be really uncomfortable.

Gabriel was already on his broom and flying lazy circles over the class upside down, despite the screeched instructions to stop. Sam wondered what the point of Gabriel disobeying what were essentially his own rules was. He realized a minute later when his own broom rose into the air against his will, just long enough for Madam Hooch to lose her temper and give both him and Gabriel detention. Together.

Gabriel was sometimes almost painfully clichéd with his attempts to dictate their relationship with romantic tropes.

Aside from Gabriel getting them into trouble, the flying class was… actually fun; though Sam was sore afterwards as they walked to Charms. Gabriel was bouncier than ever. Sam suspected he was looking forward to his detention. 

 

In Charms they learned Wingardium Leviosa. Sam was quite certain this lesson didn’t happen in the books until six or seven weeks of the school term had passed, and, for that matter, that flying wasn’t meant to be the very first thing on the agenda, but Gabriel, when asked, just snorted and said that of course he wasn’t going to keep Sam here for seven years, so things were sped up just a little.

The feather Sam was provided with was extremely large and noticeably less white than those of the other students. Sam squinted suspiciously at the shiny, gold primary. When he turned to ask Gabriel about the feather, the archangel was looking almost nervous. Oh.

‘Did you really build this entire world just to have an excuse to give me one of your feathers?’ Sam demands.

Gabriel wouldn’t meet his eyes, and Sam swore the angel was blushing. He leant over to press a chaste kiss to Gabriel’s cheek.

‘You didn’t have to do all this, Gabe. I love your feathers.’

‘It was not just for that, Samalam, I’m taking an opportunity that presented itself to me. Now, shush, we’re meant to be levitating these.' the angel turned back to his workspace to avoid the potential conversation about feelings.

Gabriel’s feather was a small stick with brown hairs glued to the sides. Sam ran a hand through his hair and finds a small bald spot. His eyebrow twitched, but he said nothing. One of Gabriel’s illusory students was the first to succeed in lifting the feather, but rather than a graceful float towards the ceiling, it zooms skyward and bounces off the stones before bursting into flame. Sam’s attempts to lift the feather Gabriel had given him grew half-hearted after that. He slipped the feather into the inner pocket of his robe as they packed up and headed to Potions.

 

Snape was marginally less scary in Gabriel’s fantasy world than he was when Sam read the books; but only because there’s an archangel occupying Sam’s personal space who had recently taken to smiting anything that even looked at Sam funny.

Snape loomed right over the diminutive hunter as he worked. Sam’s hands shook, enough that he wonders whether Gabriel was making him jittery on purpose, and he hesitated too long adding the foul-smelling root Gabriel had chopped up to their potion. The brew hissed alarmingly before exploding right into his face. Gabriel tried, unsuccessfully, to mask his giggles with a coughing fit.

‘You don’t need to breathe, asshole.’ Sam wiped the gunk off his robes and face with as much indignation as he could muster. Of course they got another detention.

 

Sam collapsed into his comfortable four poster that night and is almost unconscious by the time Gabriel follows him a minute later. The archangel’s hands were wandering inappropriately, again, and Sam finally lost his patience.

‘Gabriel, I’m eleven years old right now, and so are you. For fuck’s sake just stop with the bad touching, you pervert.’

The angel looked flabbergasted, as if the idea that he couldn’t touch his boyfriend in their current forms had never occurred to him. Sam knew angels didn’t have childhoods and don’t see a lot of things the way humans do, but this is too much. Gabriel had been on Earth long enough to know where the line was.

‘Look, Sam, I kinda forgot. But you’re right. Sorry.’ Gabriel’s expression of contrition looked genuine enough.

Sam gave Gabriel a bitchface and the angel sighed melodramatically and crossed his legs, his voice taking on a mild lecturing tone.

‘You know I don’t see human forms the way you do, right?’

Sam’s brow furrowed as he tries to fathom the relevance. He suspected he’d normally be able to figure out what his angel was getting at, but it’s been a long day.

‘You see souls?’ Sam phrased it as a question, because he was still not sure what Gabriel meant.

‘Yep. Exactly. It’s more than that, though. Angels exist primarily on the metaphysical plane. Souls matter more, to us, are closer to what we are. We see souls before bodies, and we pay them more attention.’

Gabriel’s tone was factual, serious in a way the angel rarely is, and Sam knew the angel was making a real effort to address his human’s concerns for once.

‘Your soul, Sam, is not young or untouched. It has written on it your entire life and the scars and experience of all that. Time in the Cage included. There is no way an angel could ever mistake your soul for that of a child, Sam Winchester, or for anything less than a thing of radiant beauty. It is your life story laid out for me to see, and I see it far more clearly than your body. You look no less beautiful to me now than ever. You don't look like a child in any way, to me, and normally we're allowed to freaking hold hands, so I keep forgetting.’

Sam was speechless. He always thought of his soul as damaged, scarred and ugly, but Gabriel…

He rolled over and shuts his eyes to pretend Gabriel wouldn’t know about the tears leaking out. He heard a shift in the air and felt Gabriel’s largest pair of wings wrap around him.

**If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wordy explanation of mechanics at the end, but I really needed to explain why Gabriel was constantly forgetting he turned Sam into a child, because it was beginning to make me uncomfortable.
> 
> And I'm so sorry about how late this is. I've been struggling to write anything I actually thought was presentable. I'll try harder in the future.


	4. Detention with Snape & the Halloween Feast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gabriel gets bored a lot, Sam is grumpy, Dean is lonely and Castiel doesn't know whether to take his new Head Boy responsibilities seriously.

Sam woke up and immediately realized he’d changed size again. He felt the same disorienting sensation and the same vertigo when he looked at the ground, which was noticeably further away from his face than it had been last night. Gabriel had vanished, and when Sam looked up he finds that the four poster bed has been replaced with a bunk bed. Still four poster, which was a bit ridiculous, but considering the entire situation Sam thought he’d let that one slide.

Sam looked down at his body, trying to gauge how much bigger he had grown overnight, and wasn’t successful. It didn’t seem like a hugely pronounced difference, like the jump from his adult to his eleven year old body had been, but Sam was pretty sure he was now a teenager.  
He checked in the mirror and confirmed his suspicions. That was definitely a thirteen or fourteen year old face. Gabriel popped up next to him, blatantly disregarding every rule on apparition in the books.

‘Gabe, why?’ Sam flicked his hair forward to hide his face from the angel. He’d hated the way he looked in his early teens. The spectre of chubby twelve year old Sammy had haunted the hunter right into his adulthood.

Gabriel pushed Sam’s hair back from his face until it pointed straight up.

‘Because now you’re old enough for hand holding, Sammy.’

Sam rolled his eyes in disbelief. Unbelievable. Gabriel couldn’t stick to his own rules.

‘Plus, you know, I had to start moving things along. First year was getting boring. Don’t worry, though, we still have our detention tonight. In the dungeons. With Snape.’ Gabriel cackled as he headed for the stairs.

His hair looked like birds could have been nesting in it, which was either because Gabriel was taking the opportunity to act like a teenager and disregard personal hygiene, or because he wanted Sam to chase after him and try to comb his hair. Either way, Sam resolved to just ignore it.

 

Dean was sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Castiel.

‘Is that allowed?’ Sam asked Gabriel, nodding towards his brother. Gabriel shrugged.

‘Breakfast at Hogwarts isn’t what you’d call a formal affair, at least when I’m running it. Plus, they’re seventh years now, and Cas is Head Boy; they can do what they want.’

The downside to Dean being allowed to rejoin the group is, of course, that he and Castiel spent the entire meal staring at each other. When the silence became unbearable, Sam tried to interrupt it.

‘So, Cas, is that the Head Boy pin? Congratulations, I guess.’

Castiel seemed to notice the badge on his tie for the first time.

‘Yes, it would appear to be. Thank you, Sam.’

Gabriel cleared his throat and Castiel glanced at him, but pointedly refrained from giving his statement the addendum Gabriel was looking for.

Dean was now staring at the pin instead of Castiel’s face, which was nice for a change, but Sam couldn’t stop himself from thinking _his eyes are up there, Dean. _From the way Gabriel’s mouth twitched Sam guessed he was being eavesdropped on again.__

 _ _Castiel departed as soon as he was finished with breakfast and Dean looked forlorn, heading off in a different direction shortly after.__

 _ _

‘Why did you even bring them along if you’re going to spend the entire time keeping them apart?’ Sam asked.

Gabriel just shrugged.

‘Is this some weird plot to get them together by proving to them that they’re miserable apart? Because, if it is, you’re doing it wrong.’

‘Eat your eggs, Sam,’ Gabriel said. He’s frowning, and the quick dismissal lead Sam to think he was on the right track.

 

By the time they got to their detention at the end of the day, Sam was exhausted. When he remembered he had three hours of scrubbing disgusting bilge off heavy cauldrons to look forward to he almost cried. Gabriel, on the other hand, was skipping along beside Sam as he trudged down to the dungeons. Stupid angels not needing sleep.

Sam wondered if being a teenager again was affecting his thoughts. He was worryingly cranky over something petty compared to the usual crap he had no problems enduring while hunting.

‘C’mon, Sammy, going to detention with your boyfriend and giggling through the whole thing is an essential part of normal school experience!’ Gabriel waved his arms in Sam's face.

Sam just looked at him.

‘One, no part of this can be called normal, Gabriel, and two, you shouldn’t have given us detention with Snape if you wanted to slack off and not do the work.’

‘The risk of being caught just makes it more exciting,’ Gabriel tried to justify, waggling his eyebrows.

‘Not if you’re controlling every single thing that happens here. Down to when the constructs blink. How is it a “risk” at all? We won't get caught unless you decide we should.’

Gabriel grumbled about Sam being a spoilsport the rest of the way down.

 

Snape hovered like a bat over them throughout the detention, and Sam couldn’t even mutter insults under his breath at Gabriel. He settled for glaring at the archangel, who was cheerfully whistling as he scrubbed a mostly clean cauldron with a regular sized brush.

Sam pressed his toothbrush a little too hard against the sulfuric-smelling paste glued to the heavy pewter surface and it snapped in his hand.

 

At the end of two hours, Gabriel apparently got bored, because Sam heard a snap and the potions master abruptly dismissed them.

_Thank God for that_ , Sam thought deliberately, earning a mock hurt look from Gabriel.

The dungeon corridors were freezing on the way back up, and Gabriel was in a hurry for some reason.

‘Come on Sam, we have to get to the Halloween feast! The food should be just about ready to serve by now!’

‘Halloween? Gabriel, if there is anything even resembling a mountain troll that you’re planning on making us fight in the next ten minutes I swear I’m breaking up with you.’

The archangel’s pout and the quiet snap from his side made Sam glad he’d issued the warning.

The feast almost made up for the day’s antics, until Gabriel emptied a goblet of pumpkin juice over Sam’s head and one of the Headless Hunt ran through him. Sam’s glare was dark enough to make the angel snap him clean, and the rest of the meal passed without anything too terrible happening, aside from Gabriel eating enough desert to make Sam feel sick just looking at him.

On the way back up to their dorm, Gabriel faked falling into a sugar coma and made Sam carry him, grumbling all the way.

 

Dean trudged along after Castiel through the black corridor, occasionally tripping over his own feet and cursing.

‘Dean, you are not allowed to be wandering the halls at this hour, and past experience suggests the easiest way to get through experiences such as this one is to go along with Gabriel’s whims. Please return to your dormitory.’ Cas reiterated the argument they’d been having all night.

‘No, man, I’m not leaving you alone to pretend to patrol some bullshit school full of Gabriel’s fake children. If we have to be stuck in this stupid thing, we can at least get some quality time out of it, right?’

Cas stopped dead and turns to look at Dean. ‘You would rather spend time with me than worry about the consequences of disobeying Gabriel?’

‘Fuck Gabriel.’

The wall beside them creaks ominously. Castiel looked it up and down before moving Dean away into the middle of the corridor.

‘You should perhaps keep that sentiment to yourself while inside this construct.’

Dean flipped off the wall.

Castiel didn’t object to Dean accompanying him again. He seemed to think it would be unwise to leave Dean alone in a castle that was potentially infused with the personality of Gabriel’s Pagan half. Eventually they were caught by fake teachers and both given detention, Dean for being out of bounds and Castiel for neglecting his duties and not turning Dean in. Dean was marched off back to his dorm for the night and Castiel was ordered to return, alone.

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally sort of know where this is going. It makes it a lot easier to write.


End file.
